ATP-3-09-42 Fire Support for the Brigade Combat Team Download
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Organization and Capabilities for Fire Support within the Brigade Combat Team 1 March 2016 ATP 3-09.42 1-9 commander/platoon leader. The numbers of howitzers in each platoon and employment method may vary based on the tactical situation or mission requirements. Howitzers normally position individually and work together under the lead of the senior section chief. If the platoon divides into pairs or groups, a designated senior section chief acts as team leader. 1-45. Section operations are the least preferred method of operation because the section is isolated and must provide for its own defense. This method requires the highest degree of crew training and does not provide for mutual support against air or ground threats. For more on the BCT’s cannon field artillery battalion, see FM 3-09, FM 3-96, and ATP 3-09.23. MORTARS 1-46. Mortars are high-angle, relatively short-range, high rate-of-fire, area fire weapons. Their mobility makes them well suited for close support of maneuver and can rapidly be brought into action. Mortars are ideal weapons for attacking targets on reverse slopes, in gullies, in ditches, in built up areas, and in other areas that are difficult to reach with low-angle fire. The proliferation of handheld global positioning system devices and the fielding of the new mortar fire control system partially compensate for the fact that mortar positions are seldom surveyed. The commander may specify mortar support for subordinate units by changing the command or support relationship, by assigning priority of fires or by assigning priority targets such as final protective fires: A priority target is a target, based on either time or importance, on which delivery of fires takes precedence over all the fires for the designated firing unit or element (FM 3-09). Final protective fire is an immediately available prearranged barrier of fire designed to impede enemy movement across defensive lines or areas (JP 3-09.3). MORTARS WITHIN THE BCT 1-47. Mortars are organic to all BCT maneuver battalions, cavalry troops, and to rifle companies in the Stryker and infantry BCTs. In maneuver units, mortar platoons or sections are found at battalion level and mortar sections are found at company level in airborne, ranger, air assault, and infantry rifle companies, and in cavalry troops. BCT organic mortars can include 60-mm at company level, with both 81-mm and 120-mm mortars at maneuver battalion and cavalry squadron level. See ATP 3-09.30, ATTP 3-21.90, and FM 3-09 for additional information on mortars and their capabilities. ELECTRONIC ATTACK 1-48. Electronic attack is the division of electronic warfare involving the use of electromagnetic energy, directed energy, or antiradiation weapons to attack personnel, facilities, or equipment with the intent of degrading, neutralizing, or destroying enemy combat capability and is considered a form of fires (JP 3- 13.1). Electronic attack includes: Actions, such as jamming and electromagnetic deception, taken to prevent or reduce an enemy’s effective use of the electromagnetic spectrum. Employment of weapons that use either electromagnetic or directed energy as their primary destructive mechanism (for example, lasers, radio frequency weapons, particle beams). Offensive and defensive tasks to include countermeasures. 1-49. Within the BCT military intelligence company the Signals Intelligence collection platoon contains collection assets – one AN/MLQ-40 Prophet control team and three Prophet collection teams. During operations, these assets normally support subordinate BCT elements. The Prophet control team provides mission management, correlates direction finding data, performs analysis, and reports information on enemy emitter activity and emitter location. The Prophet control team provides technical channels and authority for collection teams. 1-50. The Prophet collection teams operate mounted or dismounted using systems from the Prophet sensor vehicle or signals intelligence equipment provided by other military intelligence units. Prophet collection teams work independently or in tandem to detect, intercept, and exploit enemy signal emitters. Prophet provides indications, warning, location, tracking, and identification of threat emitters. Information collected